Workforce and Education Committee

The Workforce and Education Committee is dedicated to helping member companies recruit, educate, and retain a world class workforce that is capable of creatively solving complex technology challenges and inspiring the entrepreneurial spirit of employees and organizations.

Our mission will be accomplished by:

Strengthening the relationship with educational institutions and students.

Aligning our efforts with other organizations in the region.

Advocating our own agenda in areas of workforce at the county, state, and national levels.

Sharing best practices.

Providing information about workforce trends.

Taskforce Initiatives

Student/School-Workplace Initiatives: NVTC member companies interact with students and schools (P-20) in many creative ways and other companies would benefit from hearing about these initiatives and what makes them successful. Interested members will document best practices/lessons learned for school-employer relationships; internships, sponsorships, collaborations, teachers-in-the-workplace, and more.

Employer-School Communication: How employers K-12 and higher education can better communicate to develop a robust pipeline of employees with the skills needed to meet the short, medium and long-term needs of the regions' employers. For more information about the projected, critical skills gap, please see the reports on the Committee's website in the Event Archives.

School-Parent Communication: Closely related is an interest in developing strategies for communicating with K-12 parents about STEM career opportunities and STEM education options. The goal of the "Employer To Parents Communications" taskforce is to give parents direct and time-sensitive information so they can help guide their children towards future gainful employment and help them make informed decisions about education options.

Veterans in the Workplace: How can local companies and organizations improve hiring and on-boarding and full engagement of exiting military personnel into the Northern Virginia workforce. What works? What doesn't? What still needs to be better understood. This is a huge initiative for the region and many NVTC members are leading the way or are interested to learn how they can be leaders in hiring veterans.

Speaker and Programs Initiative: Can you help us find speakers on STEM topics or who have expertise in creating a well-tuned workforce in times of skills shortages such as recruiting strategies, re-skilling current employees, engagement, and diversity (critical as the workforce is shifting in terms of generations, culture, and experience).

While members will be alerted to calendar changes, please check our committee web page for updates.

Topics of discussion at future meetings will include: - IT companies-specific topics concerning HR/workforce development professionals; Retiring military men and women and their integration into corporate IT world; Examples of best internship practices in local IT companies; Virtual Education Expo; STEM education: creating short, mid and long term workforce pipeline.

According to the meeting panelists and their statistics, the Prince William region has become the center for robotics with its highest concentration of robotics teams and competitions - VEX, FIRST LEGO League (FLL), SeaPerch - as compared to the rest of Virginia and all of the U.S. There has been a number of successful programs that came out as a result of partnerships in this region that K-12 students and teachers have benefited from greatly, such as NOVA SySTEMic Solutions that has been expanding into all of Northern Virginia and also one daily 70-minute STEM Subject for all elementary school students in Manassas Park City Schools.

Panelists Brian Wolfe from LogisTech and Zuzana Steen from Micron Technology summarized their return on investment (ROI)/reasons why their companies are involved in giving back to area schools by volunteering, donations, giving tours, etc.

Physics Slice of the STEM Education and Workforce Puzzle | Partnerships in Practice to Address the Challenge of Finding, Training and Placing Workers
February 1, 2013

Guest Speakers:

Susan White, American Institute of Physics (AIP), discussed the Physics slice of the STEM education and workforce puzzle. AIP has expertise on collecting data from K-12, colleges/universities, and employers to present a unified perspective of the pipeline. AIP also provides valuable educational resources. Could this be a model for other STEM fields? www.aip.org

Jeff Fox, Managing Director, The nanoSTAR Institute (The Institute for Nanoscale and Quantum Scientific and Technological Advanced Research) , University of Virginia talked about new partnership with local high schools, NOVA and businesses for STEM majors.

We have had a wide range of speakers this year and, judging from the discussions these are generating, we are touching on topics of interest to you. As we plan for 2013, we are seeking your input on topics. What do you think about the following? What do you really want to learn about?

Education & training budgets and legislation at the local, state and federal levels?

Workforce-related legislation-the role of local, state and federal government on hiring incentives, H-1B visas?

Healthcare workforce needs and training

Cybersecurity workforce needs and certification and education

Deeper look at veterans' hiring and on-boarding and adjustment to civilian life and work.

Best practice examples of corporate/education partnerships

There are endless possibilities, so what topics interest you? Do you have any speakers you recommend-please let us know who they are regardless whether or not you know them. We want to make 2013 as interesting and useful to you possible.

Guest Speaker: Will Anderson, MBRT's CTO (Maryland Business Roundtable for Education) and lead architect of STEMnet.

STEMnet: How the corporate and education partners are engaging, and the roadmap ahead.

MBRT is a coalition of Maryland's leading employers working to support education. MBRT co-chaired development of the Governor's STEM Plan, and is now leading the creation of Maryland's STEM Innovation Network - STEMnet - the Plan's 7th recommendation that will facilitate achievement of the preceding six recommendations. The first component of STEMnet is a "Hub" for STEM Teachers, a model that many states and organizations are interested in.

As Founder and President, Srikanth Ramachandran is the principal architect of the company's growth strategy and strategic leadership. He is responsible for identifying market plays, generating new business and to provide the vision for the company. Srikanth oversees administration, finance, sales, client relations and workforce development program.

Under his direction, Multivision has shown consistent growth since inception, receiving various recognition and appreciations. He is mainly credited for spearheading various corporate-wide initiatives, resulting in continuous growth. Srikanth is the visionary behind Multivision's Workforce Development Program, which is showing sensational growth and a positive future for the company.

He has more than 15 years of IT industry experience and was recently honored as Smart CEO magazine's "FUTURE 50 Smart CEO". He has extensive experience working as a consultant to the US Navy.